Saturday, December 14, 2013

Quelle Jolie Fée

I'm so happy I finally have a quilt finished. It has only taken me about 18 months.




It is a quilt for my sister's big *0 birthday last year.  Surprisingly, cough cough, I didn't have it finished in time for her birthday but I had made headway with it, so I "gave" it to her half finished and said I'll finish it for you in time for Christmas.  I meant 2012 not 2013, but as usual, life and my tardiness got in the way.

The story behind this quilt. 


Back in 2009 I travelled to Europe, and while in Paris I bought a present for my sister. Her name is Fi, and I know that Fée is French for fairy but I just couldn't resist this seriously cute cushion cover.  My sis loved it but eventually said to me that it wasn't getting used as a cushion because it's quite big, Euro pillow size, and would I please make it into a quilt. The cushion cover fabric is a very fine pure cotton and creases a lot!  A search through my fabric stash and  voila,  some coordinating fabric.  Even though my sister wanted me to make a quilt, she wanted minimal piecing and minimal quilting. The front of the cushion cover was unpicked from the backing and I started adding borders.
A variety of fabrics from my stash, including a piece from Pashmina by Moda, Kona Charcoal, Bella Snow and a Denyse Schmidt from Spotlight fabric, not all seen in the above shot.

Minimal piecing meant I chose to make a medallion style quilt with simple borders. Minimal quilting ended up being stitch in the ditch, using Aurifil 2021 and 2024 50wt.  I love quilting with the Aurifil thread as it's fine and it sits nicely into the fabric, it's perfect for stitch in the ditch quilting.  I also added a couple of extra machine quilted lines to add some very subtle quilting detail.

I had a dilemma with the wide Paris map border. It was too wide to just stitch in the ditch, so I chose to stitch along the streets. I really like how that turned out. It was a bit of a headache trying to plan ahead with minimal stopping and starting but I think I did quite well and the further I went, the more creative I became following the streets.


The next challenge was how to quilt the centre panel.  That took a lot of thought, I eventually machine quilted around the outside of the fairy, and then used white Perle 8 to add lots of daisies to the design. The original design had embroidered red and blue daisies scattered across the background.  I couldn't match the thread colour and weight so I added white.  They are hard to see in the photos, but that was the whole idea, I didn't want them to be a distraction.  I made each daisy adding two to three stitches in the centre of each flower, going through the backing to anchor it. 


For the backing I used the cute dog print from Aneela Hooey's Sherbet Pips. Not particularly French, but my sister loves it and I think it works really well.



I'm really happy with the whole quilt and I absolutely love the grey and white stripe binding.


16 comments:

  1. A gorgeous present Marg! Truly worth the wait ; ) Love the fairy she is so cute and your coordinating fabrics work beautifully! The binding is the icing on the cake!

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  2. Quilting in the Paris streets was a stroke of brilliance! And that striped binding is perfection! Lucky sis - even if it is a tad late. :)

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  3. You have done a wonderful job of turning the cushion cover! You have used your creativity to give your sister a quilt she will love and one you should be ver proud of! Sometimes these things take time....!

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  4. What a super quilt. I love how creatively you've made the cushion cover into a quilt. and I love the fabrics you've used and I too think the binding is perfect. I'm sure your sister will be so please (late or not).

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  5. It's wonderful how you've put the whole thing together Marg and the different fabrics are fantastic together. Clever girl ! A quilt with a story is always a superior quilt.

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  6. What a unique quilt Marg - you have done so well to stick to your sis' wishes, love all the fabric choices, especially the Paris Streets and the binding is just perfect.

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  7. Lucky Sis got two great presents. The cushion first and now the quilt. How good does it feel to have something finished?

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  8. Wow!!! This is absolutely gorgeous!!!! What a story behind it. Truly a treasure!!

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  9. I think you were very creative in your design decisions! A delightful quilting journey, however long. Lucky sister!

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  10. Och, what's a couple of years between friends ;o) Love the border you added, and smart thinking on the quilted streets!

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  11. Marg , this is a gorgeous quilt!! I love everything about it!! Every creative decision you've made with this quilt is so right!! I bet Fi loves it!!

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  12. You did good...the daisies look fabulous, the quilting along the roads was an inspired idea and I love the look of this quilt. (and so will Fi)

    Tell Fi that genius takes time...

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  13. Great job with the quilting and the fabric choices. They all go so well together. The wait was well worth it!

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  14. This looks absolutely fabulous! I love the story of how it came to be and how you made your choices, I ticularly like the way you quilted the streets! A great result for your lucky sister!

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  15. It's lovely, love the quilting and the fabrics. I'm a Fiona, can it be mine?????

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  16. Beautifully done! You can't rush genius, which the piecing and quilting on this was. I'm sure your sister understands.

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